'Pain make man think. Thought make man wise. Wisdom make life endurable' : Sakini, in "The Tea House of the August Moon" by John Patrick, (1953)

Friday, May 25, 2018

Om Thanvi: The roving revolutionary -. Che Guevara in India

Che Guevara visited
India at the end of June 1959 and stayed for two weeks. In the course of that
official visit, he met Nehru, traveled around India, and was interviewed on All
India Radio by K.P. Bhanumathy. When she prodded him, saying, “You are said to
be a communist but communist dogmas won’t be accepted by a multi-religious
society” , Che apparently replied, “I would not call myself a communist. I was
born as a Catholic. I am a socialist who believes in equality and freedom from
the exploiting countries. I have seen hunger, so much suffering, stark poverty,
sickness and unemploy-ment right from my very young days in [Latin] America. It
is happening in Cuba, Vietnam and Africa – the struggle for freedom starts from
the hunger of the people. There are useful lessons in the Marxist-Leninist
theory. The practical revolutionary initiates his own struggle simply
fulfilling laws foreseen by Marx. In India, Gandhiji’s teachings had its own
merit which finally brought freedom”.

In other words, Che seemed to be saying
that Marxism didn’t prescribe any specific trajectory of revolutionary
emancipation whether from capitalism or from imperialist or colonial
domination.

The ‘mysterious
Krishna’ whom Che met (see link below) and was so impressed by was clearly V.
Krishna Menon who was a passionate opponent of nuclear weapons and had liaised
with Bertrand Russell throughout the fifties. We have at least one photo of Che
conversing with Krishna Menon. They met on 3 July. About that conversation Che
said, “While talking with Krishna, the learned Indian, we became aware of the
evils of the means of mass destruction”. Strangely, when Che visited Calcutta,
none of the leaders of the then undivided Communist Party of India went out of
their way to meet him...

Che left Havana on 12 June 1959. He celebrated his 31st birthday in Madrid, and
flew to Delhi via Cairo. His plane reached Palam on the night of 30 June. Since
Che had no official position in the Cuban government, this “national leader of
Cuba”, as he was described in official communications, was received at the
airport by a welcoming committee of one, Deputy Chief Protocol Officer D S
Khosla, who later accompanied him to the newly built Hotel Ashok in
Chanakyapuri.

The Cuban delegation
accompanying Che was likewise small: a mathematician, an economist, a party
worker, a captain of the rebel army, and a single bodyguard. Pardo Llada, a
rightwing broadcaster, also joined the delegation in Delhi. Though Llada was
ostensibly sent to assist Che, it is rumoured that Castro wanted some respite
from his popular daily radio programme in Havana. In any case, Che was not
happy to have him, and Llada ended up returning home midway through the trip.

On his first morning
in Delhi, Che met Nehru in Teen Murti Bhawan, the prime minister’s residence.
Nehru had a soft spot for socialist countries, and Che clearly admired the
Indian leader. “Nehru received us with an amiable familiarity of a patriarchal
grandfather,” Che wrote in his report, “but with noble interest in the
dedication and struggles of the Cuban people, commending our extraordinary
valiance and showing unconditional sympathy towards our cause.”

Formal talks took
place before lunch, and Che explained that Cuba wanted to establish diplomatic
and trade relations with India. Though Cuba did have a consulate in Calcutta,
India had no diplomatic set-up in Cuba, with the Indian ambassador in
Washington instead attending to Indian affairs in Cuba. The two delegations
agreed to establish diplomatic missions as soon as possible, and post-lunch
plans were made for the Cuban delegation to meet with Indian trade officials…
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